Going beyond VR cat-girls: how games can change our relationship with nonhuman animals
By Mae van Veldhoven
Mae is a Global Sustainability Science student at Utrecht University and the communications officer for Anticiplay. Besides coordinating the blogs, they also sometimes hijack the keyboard to contribute their own thoughts and opinions. This particular blog was written for the course The Sustainability Game, which is centered around gaming and game development in the context of a new design paradigm.
When you hear the term “animal voices”, you might immediately think of the movie Babe, or get flashbacks of the magnum opus that was Bee Movie. This trope is not unfamiliar in media, and I believe it is actually part of a larger societal dynamic: the integration of nonhuman animals’ voices and interests in an anthropocentric paradigm. Attempts to extend our moral circle to other sentient beings are already continuously being made by institutions such as PETA, as well as political parties, like the Party for the Animals in the Netherlands. However, a huge challenge lies in understanding nonhuman interests in order to adequately incorporate them in a world dominated by a certain kind of ape[1]. Yet, I remain hopeful, since I believe art has the potential to open us up to more-than-human worlds, especially when aiming at global change and cultural renewal[2]. Although Bee Movie’s interspecies flirtations between a bee and a human could at the very least be called a cultural novelty, in my opinion, more substantive ways of portraying our planetary peers are needed. This is where games come in. In this blog, I will outline various ways in which games contribute to improved nonhuman animal representation. I believe these unique methods and mechanics could help us reshape our relationship with nonhuman beings.
Nonhuman animal languages
As mentioned above, animal voices are quite the trope in media. With the strange and noteworthy exception of the band Caninus, more often than not, these voices are translated into human speech. With regards to games, this behavioural anthropomorphism (assigning human traits) could be explained by the fact that people experience more positive social judgements towards more human-like agents[3]. However, other ways of communication are being explored by games such as Fe (2018). In Fe you play as a fox-like creature who has the ability to communicate with other creatures in the game by singing melodic tones to them. However, different beings prefer different tones and your task is to match their frequency in order to understand and befriend them. This illustrates a form of non-verbal communication that I often recognize when being in the presence of nonhuman animals. Where human speech fails, you can look at their body language or tune into their energy to see if they are comfortable with you: a skill I believe not to be limited to Disney princesses only.
Beyond human experiences
In addition to nonverbal communication, games can also facilitate beyond human experiences. One way of doing this is by letting the player actually be a nonhuman animal. Now, I think most of us enjoyed being an asshole in Goat Simulator, but the gaming industry has since then come up with more innovative and immersive ways to park your humanity for a second. Here, the game ABZÛ comes to mind. Although you play as a human diver, the game provides the opportunity to step out of your neoprene form to observe your surroundings in more detail. Besides already being humbled by the vibrant ecosystem, you can actually follow the soaring creatures in it, observing their way of life. Still, an even more immersive experience can be provided through Virtual Reality, and no: not only through cat-girls in VRChat. According to a paper by Krekhov et al. (2019), nonhuman animal avatars can be used as an enjoyable escape from more stereotypical avatars. And although the rhino example at first gave me Ace Ventura vibes (yes, that scene), I do think the aspect of additional body parts is an innovative way of representing nonhuman elements in games.
Nonhuman personalities
Lastly, unlike other sources of media, games provide the ability to actually interact with nonhuman animal characters. These characters in games have seen a significant change over the years. Here, common tropes are nonhuman animals as mounts, or as helpers. This could be explained by the fact that more human-like depictions are judged more favourably in credibility and competence[5]. Therefore, your horse in Stardew Valley is basically a simple transport mechanism, and your dog companion in Fallout 4 serves as an extra protection technique in battle. Obviously, any respectable cyber vegan would argue that these types of interactions reduce nonhuman beings to mere human servants. And even if nonhuman animals get to be treated like fellow citizens, for example in Animal Crossing, there is still this weird speciesistic tension between the ones you call your neighbours and the ones you put in a museum. This is why The Last Guardian (2016) is such a striking example of how games are increasingly developing distinct personalities for nonhuman beings. In her article “Video games are creating smarter animals”, Jess Joho discusses how the behaviour of Trico was deliberately made complex. With Trico being your nonhuman travel companion in the game, this was almost immediately followed by a horde of gamers upset about the controls. Yet, even though it led to a boost in “Trico command” tutorials on Youtube, the game still shows that more profound nonhuman personalities can have a place in games. They can even be part of the gameplay.
All in all, I believe the gaming industry is showing great potential for representing nonhuman animals and, better yet, their interests — something that is, slowly but surely, taking place in society as we speak. At the time of editing this blog, the UK government has announced that it will formally recognize nonhuman animals as sentient, resulting in a vast addition of welfare measures. Even though we might still have our biases in terms of who we deem credible or capable, games have the power to challenge these views. Whether this is done by learning ourselves new ways of communication, by submerging ourselves in nonhuman practices, or by experiencing nonhuman animals as their own person, I feel extremely optimistic about the role of games in rewriting how we feel towards other fellow earthlings.
[1] Von Essen, E., & Allen, M. P., (2017). Solidarity Between Human and Non-Human Animals: Representing Animal Voices in Policy Deliberations, Environmental Communication, 11:5, 641–653,
DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2016.1269820
[2] Galafassi, D., et al., (2018). ‘Raising the temperature’: the arts on a warming planet. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 71–79.
[3] Gong, L. (2008). How social is social responses to computers? The function of the degree of anthropomorphism in computer representations. Computers in Human Behaviour, 1494–1509: DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.007
[4] Krekhov, A., Cmentowski, S., Emmerich, K., & Krüger, J., (2019). Beyond Human: Animals as an Escape from Stereotype Avatars in Virtual Reality Games. Paper Session 7: Beyond the Stereotypical, 439–451. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311350.3347172
[5] Nowak, K. L., & Fox, J., (2018). Avatars and computer-mediated communication: A review of the definitions, uses, and effects of digital representations. Review of Communication Research, 6, 30–53.
DOI: 10.12840/issn.2255- 4165.2018.06.01.015
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